A Visual History of Manhattan's Grid

In the early 19th century most of the 96,000 or so residents of New York City were packed into homes near Manhattan's southern tip. The island's principle artery of transportation was not majestic Broadway or sleek Fifth Avenue but a winding dirt route known as the Boston Post Road. The area above what's now Canal Street was divided into large green estates, and someone describing the environment on Manhattan as a whole would have been more likely to use the word bucolic than congested.

Today the streets and avenues that constitute Manhattan's grid feel like the very bones of the island — no less essential to the city's life than the skeletal system is to our own — but it wasn't until the master plan of 1811 that this scheme came into being. To celebrate this 200th anniversary, the Museum of the City of New York is exhibiting a vast collection of maps, documents, and artifacts tracing the grid's evolution. "The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan for Manhattan, 1811—2011," will begin on December 6 and run through April 2012. Atlantic Cities readers can get a sneak peek in the slide show below.